2) presentation by Dr Verner Bickley MBE, Proverse Co-Publisher and Proverse Prize Co-Founder, of those launching books on the evening: Chris Duggan, transcriber of the main part of the C19th journals of George Washington (Farley) Heard; Brian Finch, translator from Chinese of "A Faithful Record of the 'Lisbon Maru' Incident"; Peter Gregoire, best-selling Hong Kong author and a previous winner of the Proverse Prize, author of a new non-fiction book, "Mentoring Reversed"; Ivy Ngeow, winner of the Proverse Prize 2016 with her first novel, "Cry of the Flying Rhino"; Hayley Ann Solomon, Winner of the Proverse Supplementary Prize 2016 with her first poetry collection, "Celestial Promise"; and well-published Hong Kong author, Gillian Bickley, editor of "Through American Eyes: The Journals of George Washington (Farley) Heard".

3a) Verner announced the Winners in the 2017 Proverse Poetry Prize competition, including those who won 1st, 2nd and 3rd places and those who won a place in the Proverse Poetry Prize Anthology 2017.

Several of those who had won places in the 2017 Anthology were present and were acknowledged.﻿﻿ They were: Liam Blackford,Paula Caronni, Psyche Chong, Sandra Gibbons, Elizabeth Grobler, Viki Holmes Radford, Susan Lavender, Jun Pan, Hayley Ann Solomon, Luisa Ternau, Roger Uren and Thomas Young (who had flown in from Michigan to be present).

All 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize-winners, on this occasion, live overseas and all had sent regrets and warm wishes for a successful evening. They are:

The 2017 Anthology, containg all winning poems, is scheduled to be launched on Wednesday, 18 April 2018 at the Proverse Spring Reception.﻿ -- Registration for the Reception is already available from this website.

3b) Verner also announced the Proverse Prize 2017 Semi-Finalists, some of whom were present and were acknowleged.

4) Gillian introduced each of the launching authors and they each introduced their book.

5) The audience was invited to ask questions or make comments. After a brief pause, several interesting comments and questions were received and answered by the authors.

6) All other Provese authors present were introduced and acknowleged: Jason Polley, James Tam; Roger Uren; Catherine Zhang; Verner Bickley; Gillian Bickley. Raoul Solomon, who designed two of the new book covers, was also introduced and acknowleged.

7) Verner concluded the formal part of the evening, inviting all to resume mixing and mingling, partake further of the canapé﻿s and from the cash bar, to buy more books and get them signed by the authors present.

8) The evening ended at 9.00pm, when authors and guests walked out into the Hong Kong night, signed books in hand, ready for some interesting, informative and exciting reading, as well as the delights of urban Hong Kong!

WE STRONGLY ADVISE YOU TO REGISTER EARLY (EVEN NOW) FOR THE PROVERSE SPRING RECEPTION TO TAKE PLACE ON WEDNESDAY, 18 APRIL 2018. PLACES ARE LIMITED BY THE CONSTRAINTS OF THIS HERITAGE VENUE AND PRIOR REGISTRATION IS ESSENTIAL.

The newly launched books: availability

All five newly-launched books are available from our Hong Kong-based distributor, the Chinese University of Hong Kong Press (www.chineseupress.com), from amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and doubtless many other online retailers.

You can also order them from Hong Kong bookshops through CUHK Press and through bookshops in the UK.

For Hong Kong deliveries, you can also order books, using the order form on this website.

Invitations to enter for the annual and international Proverse Literary Prizes are posted on this website, with all entry details, terms and conditions, etc. The entry periods are:

The Proverse Poetry Prize (single poems): 7 May to 30 June. You are eligible to enter if you are at least eighteen-years old on the date you submit your entry form.

To know more about Proverse, submitting a publishing proposal to Proverse, and/or entering for the international Proverse Prize for unpublished book-length non-fiction, fiction or poetry and/or the international Proverse Poetry Prize, browse the Proverse website: http://www.proversepublishing.com or take a look at the publishers' pages which are included in most Proverse books.

FOR MEDIA ENQUIRIES OR TO ARRANGE AN AUTHOR'S VISIT to your school, club or reading-group, or to speak or meet with any other interested audience, please email: Proverse at: info[AT]proversepublishing.com